Federico Uribe creates life-like animals from used bullets

Colombian-born artist Federico Uribe has been exhibiting in New York his powerful animal sculptures made out of used bullet shells, Euronews reports.

The artist says his work is inspired by the decades-long conflict between the Colombian government and the rebel group FARC.

“(Making) beauty out of these testimonies of death, that is what I am trying to do. There is (are) all these ugly memories related to these objects and I am trying to make something that make people find beauty in pain. So I just needed to do it.”

Uribe, who studied at the University of Los Andes in Bogota and is now based in Miami, also uses every day objects – such as pencils and piano keys – to create his pieces.

The exhibition ‘Federico Uribe, Animals and Friends – In Pencils, Books and Bullets’ has been on show at the Adelson Gallery in New York – with plans to extend the run until the end of July.

Adelson Galleries director Warren Adelson says of the exhibition: “It’s not just the fact that this is made out of bullet shells, or piano keys or coloured pencils.

“You realize that they are done so well, that they are life-like, they have their own life force.”